Most people type around 40 words a minute and speak closer to 150. That gap is why dictation feels like a cheat code once it clicks: you think out loud and the words appear. On a Mac you have two good ways to do it — the free tool that ships with macOS, and a dedicated app that cleans up what you say. Here is how to use both.

Option 1: Apple Dictation (free, built in)

Your Mac can already turn speech into text. To switch it on:

Open System Settings → Keyboard.
Find Dictation and turn it on. Pick your language if you use more than one.
Note the shortcut it shows you — that key is how you start and stop dictation.
Click into any text field, press the shortcut, and talk. Press it again to stop.

This is perfect for a quick reply or a search. The trade-off: it types what you say fairly literally, so “um,” restarts, and punctuation are on you to clean up. If that gets tiring, that is the signal you have outgrown it. (More on that in Apple Dictation vs. Murmur.)

Option 2: Murmur (clean text, any app)

Murmur is a dedicated dictation app for macOS. The difference is what happens after you speak: it runs your words through AI cleanup — dropping filler words and false starts, fixing punctuation — and then types the finished result wherever your cursor is. Setup takes about a minute:

Download Murmur and open it. Sign up for a free account.
Grant Microphone and Accessibility access when asked — the second one is what lets Murmur type into other apps.
Click into any app, hold your hotkey (Right ⌘ by default), and talk.
Release — a second later your cleaned-up text is pasted in.

Two shortcuts worth knowing: tap the hotkey instead of holding it to lock recording on for a longer thought (tap again to stop), and press Esc to cancel without pasting anything.

Getting cleaner results

Use a decent mic. AirPods or a USB mic beat a laptop mic across the room. In Murmur you can pick which input it records from.
Speak in normal sentences. You do not need to say “comma” or “period” — just talk the way you would to a person, and let cleanup handle punctuation.
Teach it your words. Add names, brands, and jargon to Murmur’s personal dictionary so it stops guessing at spellings.
Pick a hotkey you never type with. A right-side modifier or a function key won’t collide with anything you press by accident.

Which one should you use?

Start with Apple Dictation if you only dictate now and then — it is free and already installed. If you write all day, code, message constantly, or want to give your wrists a rest, the cleanup step is the whole point, and that is where Murmur earns its keep. Its free plan includes 5,000 words a month, so trying it costs nothing.

Comparing paid options? Here is Murmur vs. Wispr Flow.